Saturday, August 29, 2015

With one production left in our 2015 season, PCPH is happy to announce its upcoming 2016 season of shows!!! Don't miss TheGame's Afoot opening September 10!

June will bring the musical version of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women. With a book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland, the show opened on Broadway on January 23, 2005. That production was nominated for a Tony (Best Actress in a Musical, Sutton Foster) and three Drama Desk Awards.

Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic 1869 semi-autobiographical novel, it focuses on the four March sisters — brassy, tomboy-like, aspiring writer Jo, romantic Meg, pretentious Amy, and kind-hearted Beth — and their beloved Marmee, at home in Concord, Massachusetts while the family patriarch is away serving as a Union Army chaplain during the Civil War. Intercut with the vignettes in which their lives unfold are several recreations of the melodramatic short stories Jo writes in her attic studio.

In July we will present the Ernest Thompson play On Golden Pond. The story of Norman and Ethel Thayer and their summer time spent at their cabin on the title body of water. A visit from their grandson, and their daughter's impending remarriage set the stage for understanding of their own relationship. Made into an Academy-Award-winning film, we are happy to bring it once more to our stage.

Political unrest and disagreement is not new. In August, you can see how our founding fathers created the document that started us on our way to Independence. The musical 1776 will debut on our stage. The result is inevitable - but how did it happen? Watch and listen as our country's forefathers set forth the principles we still live by.

The musical opened on Broadway in 1969. It has a book by Peter Stone and music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards. That original production won three Tony Awards - including Best Musical.

Full of lively songs and comedy, 1776 will give you a new appreciation for The Declaration of Independence, and those stubborn delightful people who made it happen.

The 2016 season will close with a production of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple - The Female Version. All of the fun of Oscar and Felix are revived in Olive and Florence. Can these two survive together? Or will their opposite views of life and housecleaning force them to take more drastic measures?

When you come to see our final production of this season, the mystery-comedy The Game's Afoot, be sure to fill out an address form to be on the mailing list for our 2016 season brochure.

Ludwig is an
internationally-acclaimed playwright whose work has been performed in
more than 30 countries in over 20 languages. He has had 6 shows on
Broadway and 6 in the West End. He has won two Laurence Olivier Awards,
England’s highest theatre honor. He has also received three Tony Award
nominations and won two Helen Hayes Awards, the Edgar Award, the SETC
Distinguished Career Award, and the Edwin Forrest Award for Services to
the Theatre.

His plays have been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare
Company and the Bristol Old Vic. His best known plays and musicals
include Lend Me A Tenor, Crazy For You, Moon Over Buffalo, Leading
Ladies, Twentieth Century, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Game’s
Afoot, The Fox on the Fairway, Midsummer/Jersey, The Three Musketeers,
Treasure Island and The Beaux’ Stratagem.

Ken's new book How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare was published in
June 2013 by Random House, and his work has been published by the Yale
Review. He has degrees from Harvard, where he studied music with Leonard
Bernstein, Haverford College and Cambridge University.